Good old-fashioned, explosive fun

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2013)

I was giving up on the idea of ever looking forward to another big Hollywood summer movie ever again, but then Pacific Rim comes along with its charmingly simple plot, incredible special effects, an almost perfect tone, 3D that didn't destroy my eyes or make everything look dark and blurry, and, most importantly of all, a sense of fun. I felt happy and alive coming out of the theatre, and for once I felt as though not a cent had been wasted on my ridiculously expensive movie ticket. This is one you should all go and check out. Need more reasons to do so? Okay, here we go...

Guillermo Del Toro. This guy knows how to make a movie. Pan's Labyrinth is an absolutely amazing film, and one of my all time favourites. Hellboy 1 was decent in my opinion, but the sequel I thought was really good. Pacific Rim I like a little more than the Hellboy films, but it's definitely not quite up there with Pan's Labyrinth. It lacks the emotion and the artistry of that film, but it's still a great movie, just in a different way. This movie is visually astonishing in almost every regard, and I think Del Toro himself can largely be thanked for that. The action scenes feature CGI so good you won't even feel like complaining about it, and are constructed in a coherent, satisfying manner. There's no irritating shaky-cam here, and thankfully the movie doesn't skimp on the violence either- no humans die graphic deaths of course, but a number of giant monsters get absolutely pummelled and ripped to shreds by the robots, and it's satisfying as hell to see this happen.

Keeps the plot simple. There's no overly convoluted villain motivations, no absurd and annoying twists in the story, and no characters that are too complicated for their own good. This movie features giant monsters that want to take over Earth, and this causes the humans to build giant, controllable robots to fight the monsters. That's your plot. There are characters, and while they're almost all archetypal, the movie's aware of this, and somehow this makes it okay. We get enough character development to at least care for these people. This movie uses very traditional, standard characters in a way that's somehow not bothersome. The actors are all serviceable too, with Idris Elba probably coming the closest to standing out. So the dialogue, characters, and acting are all, for the most part, merely serviceable, but they really don't need to be anything more in this movie. The characters remain consistent, and aren't irritating (not even the comic relief scientist characters), and for me that was all they needed to be in a film like this.

Crazy scale: The monsters and robots in this movie are absolutely gigantic, and this makes the fight scenes awe-inspiring. These are creatures that are literally the size of sky-scrapers, and there's something crazily entertaining about seeing such huge things do battle together. There's a real weight to the fight scenes as well- the booming sound and convincing CGI really makes you feel every single punch. It's all very forceful, intense, visceral, and convincing. And yeah, as mentioned before, the sheer scale of the movie never stops being impressive. You know these things are big when one robot wields a cargo ship and uses it as a melee weapon.

The movie is actually fun: Not all movies have to be fun and entertaining. Hell, a lot of my favourite movies aren't particularly fun to watch (Requiem for a Dream anyone?), yet they might be really engaging at both an emotional and intellectual level, or they may provoke strong physical reactions do to the way they're constructed.. Big Hollywood blockbusters, however, should be fun. They shouldn't all try to be so "deep" and "thought-provoking." Big action scenes and personal character drama just don't really mix too well- maybe Christopher Nolan can pull it off, but he's the exception in this case. Leave the deep stuff to the independent and foreign film-makers. Big movies like Pacific Rim should just be a blast to watch, and, thankfully, Pacific Rim is an absolute blast to watch. It never stops being entertaining- I was giggling in glee throughout almost the entire film, and I left the theatre feeling almost euphoric. Yeah, I had a great time. And even better, the movie feels like it was made by people who were having fun as well. It's nice to watch a movie and get the sense that the people who worked on it enjoyed doing so. Maybe in reality they didn't, but it certainly doesn't feel like that based solely on just watching the movie they ended up making.

So should you see this one? Yes. Definitely yes. Especially if you've come out of more than one big blockbuster film this year feeling like you haven't really enjoyed yourself. Pacific Rim is explosive, silly, and completely over-the-top, but the film-makers were aware of this, and as a result just had fun with the whole thing; you find yourself laughing with the film rather than at the film. It's a gleeful, somewhat tongue-in-cheek film that just wants to entertain its audience.
According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, Del Toro envisioned Pacific Rim as an earnest, colourful adventure story, with an "incredibly airy and light feel", in contrast to the "super-brooding, super-dark, cynical summer movie". If this was indeed the case, he couldn't have succeeded more.